AWKWARD: CNBC Host Accidentally Outs Apple CEO As Gay

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller There was an uncomfortable moment of silence on the CNBC panel during “Squawk on the Street” on Friday.

New York Times columnist and CNBC contributor Jim Stewart was talking about his latest column, “Among Gay CEOs, the Pressure to Conform,” in which he described former B.P. chief executive John Browne’s experience as a closet gay executive.

Stewart said the current corporate culture prevents gay CEOs from coming out in public.

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Report: GOP Spends $9.7 Million to Attack Republicans – But Only $3.7 Million to Attack Democrats

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Photo Credit: TeaPartyUpdate.comIf you needed more proof that the Establishment is hell-bent on attacking Tea Party candidate, a report on campaign expenditures confirms it. Or as comedian Bill Engvall says, “Here’s your sign.”

A recent study by the Center For Public Integrity revealed that from January 1 through May 6, Republican PACs and outside groups have spent about $9.7 million attacking Republican candidates in advertisements and other communications, and only around $3.7 million to attack Democrats. Democratic groups have only spent $67,000 attacking other Democrats.

What’s caused this turbocharged increase in campaign spending? Political animosity between the Tea Party and GOP Establishment and a Supreme Court decision. In January 2010, the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling allowed corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on ads and other communication to advocate for the election (or defeat) of a political candidate. Campaign spending was ruled to be a form of speech, protected by the Constitution for both individuals and corporations.

The decision didn’t affect contributions, as it’s still illegal for unions and corporations to make direct contributions to candidates for federal office. However, it’s opened the financial floodgates for SuperPACs and other groups to raise money and make independent expenditures for federal races across the country.

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Study: All Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants

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Photo Credit: David McNewBy NRO Staff.

According to a major new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), net employment growth in the United States since 2000 has gone entirely to immigrants, legal and illegal. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CIS scholars Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that there were 127,000 fewer working-age natives holding a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job was 5.7 million above the 2000 level…

Other significant findings include:

Because the native-born population grew significantly, but the number working actually fell, there were 17 million more working-age natives not working in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000.

The share of natives working or looking for work, referred to as labor force participation, shows the same decline as the employment rate. In fact, labor force participation has continued to decline for working-age natives even after the jobs recovery began in 2010.

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Patriots Hotline Founder: We’re Forming a Human Chain to Stop Illegals

By Sean Piccoli.

Militia members and other concerned U.S. citizens are converging on the border town of Laredo, Texas, on Friday to create a blockade against illegal immigrants crossing into the United States, the organizer of the human chain and protest said on Newsmax TV’s “MidPoint.”

“This will continue for days and weeks to come” and spread “to other points” along the U.S.-Mexico frontier, Barbie Rogers, founder of the Patriots Information Hotline, said in a telephone interview.

Rogers declined to give an exact head count beyond “more than 50 people” or reveal whether participants are armed, citing worries about their security.

But she said blockaders will follow the same rules of engagement as protesters in an April standoff between federal officials and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.

“Just like at the Bundy ranch, there will be no patriot out there on that line that will fire first,” Rogers said.

Read more from this story HERE.

ATF Backs Down on Gun Sale Reports

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesFor nearly three years, federally-licensed firearms dealers (“FFLs”) in southern border states have been badgered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) to report sales of two or more rifles to the same person during any consecutive five-day period. Purporting to need this information to stop arms trafficking in and out of Mexico, ATF issued so-called “demand letters” to require indefinite reporting of multiple rifle sales by thousands of dealers, treating the independent FFL businessmen as though they were government employees.

ATF has no authority to require these reports. Although the Gun Control Act of 1968 authorizes ATF to issue demand letters, these were to be issued only when ATF is investigating certain specific buyers or specific FFLs, and this is how they were used for many years. They were not designed to impose a new permanent reporting requirement on dealers.

Moreover, in the Gun Control Act, Congress decided to require reporting only of multiple handgun sales, but not rifle sales. However, instead of taking its case to Congress to change the law and enact legislation requiring reporting on rifle sales, ATF took the law into its own hands.

In 2010, alleging that many of the guns sold by FFLs in the border states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California were being seized in Mexico, ATF required that every FFL in the border states report all multiple sales of rifles. ATF was challenged on this in court, but the courts sided with the ATF.

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Florida Moves to Protect Unborn Children

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Photo Credit: Chris BrookerFlorida Governor Rick Scott signed H.B. 59, the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act,” into law last week. With the bill’s passage, Florida joins twenty-nine other states with laws that criminalize the deliberate harm or murder of an unborn child.

Previously, Florida’s statute of limitations reserved criminal charges until a child reached viability outside of the womb, usually between 18 and 22 weeks.

Now any deliberate wrongful harm that comes to an unborn child throughout the entirety of pregnancy is punishable as a criminal offense.

“There is no timeline anymore for justice for an unborn child of a pregnant woman,” explained the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Larry Ahern, R–Fl. Abortion advocates remain unconvinced.

Read more from this story HERE.

Impeach Holder if He Won’t Appoint IRS Special Prosecutor

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Photo Credit: YouTubeAttorney General Eric Holder should be impeached if he refuses to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS tea party-targeting scandal, Sen. Ted Cruz demanded Thursday.

The Texas Republican, who has sounded the call for a special prosecutor in the scandal before, made his case for possible impeachment on the Senate floor, ripping into Holder for not standing up to President Barack Obama.

“It saddens me to say that the U.S. Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder has become the most partisan Department of Justice in the history of our country,” Cruz said, blasting its lead investigator on the IRS issue, Barbara Bosserman, as a “partisan” donor who gave over $6,000 to the president’s two election campaigns. He also noted IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has contributed over $100,000 to Democrats.

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Vet Could Lose Home For Displaying Small US Flag In Front Yard Because It Violates Home Display Rules

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Photo Credit: Melanie Conner / Getty Images A veteran could lose his home because of a small American flag he has placed in a flower pot in front of his home.

Larry Murphree explained that his homeowners’ association in the Sweetwater community wants him to remove the flag because it violates home display rules. Furthermore, he is facing $8,000 in fines if he doesn’t take it out of his flower pot.

“I want it to go away. It’s such a minor little thing and they keep coming after me,” Murphree told WAWS. “They just sent me a letter that says I owe them around $8,000 and they put a foreclosure lien on my house.”

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Clintons Struggle in Discussing Wealth as Hillary Tests 2016 Waters

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Photo Credit: Fox News Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not announced she’s a candidate for the 2016 presidential election, but should she run, a remark made during an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer may be cemented as the first gaffe of her campaign:”We came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt,” she said.

The comment backfired in a bad way, lighting up the Twitterverse and making it onto the night time television comedy shows. “I still get emotional just thinking about it,” “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart said, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye with a $20 bill.

Clinton tried to walk it back earlier this week during an interview with PBS’s Gwen Ifill. “My inartful use of those few words doesn’t change who I am, what I’ve stood for my entire life, what I stand for today,” she said.

But that same day, her husband may have accidently worsened the damage while praising $500 “Shinola” wrist watches made in Detroit. “I bought 14 of them…” he told an interviewer. “…in two different runs I bought five at Christmas and nine when I was there, and I just give them away and hope that I’ll make you more customers.”

Americans know that post-presidential families have tremendous earning potential. With Hillary’s added drawing power as a former senator and secretary of State,she can command $225,000 for a speech. That’s what the University of Las Vegas will pay Clinton to headline its fundraising gala next October.

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Poll: Only 40% of “Solid Liberals” Say they Often Feel Proud to be American

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Via WaPo, so that’s why lefties in my Twitter timeline were cheering when Germany scored on the U.S. today.

No, I’m kidding. They didn’t cheer. They just said we had it coming and shook their heads sadly.

Interesting wrinkle: This result seems largely immune from partisanship. In lots of political polls you can predict how Democrats and Republicans will tilt based on their feelings about who’s in the White House. If that were true here, you’d see liberals proud to be citizens of an Obama-led America and conservatives embarrassed. Instead we get the opposite. Patriotism (or lack thereof) transcends Hopenchange. Even more interesting is the “honor and duty” result. Normally when you ask a poll question loaded with virtuous phrases like that, respondents are eager to signal their assent. Not here. In fact, only among the two conservative groups tested do honor and duty as core values reach as high as 55 percent. Huh.

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Supreme Court Rules Obama’s Recess Appointments Violated the Constitution

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Photo Credit: Daily Signal By Elizabeth Slattery.

Today, in a blow to the Obama administration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that President Obama’s “recess appointments” to the National Labor Relations Board violated the Constitution in NLRB v. Noel Canning.

Art. II, section 2, clause 3 of the Constitution allows the president to “fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate.” On Jan. 4, 2012, President Obama made several recess appointments even though the Senate had been convening “pro forma” sessions every three days. These appointments were challenged in a labor dispute before the NLRB, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck them down as unconstitutional.

Today, the Court, in an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, held the president may make recess appointments to existing vacancies during intrasession (breaks during a session of Congress) and intersession (breaks between sessions of Congress) recesses of a “sufficient length.” The Court determined the vacancy need not occur during the recess, which upholds the broad practice dating back to the presidency of James Madison.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / JONATHAN ERNSTSupreme Court Unanimously Rejects Obama Recess Appointments

By Ed Morrissey.

The Supreme Court dropped a huge bomb on the Obama administration, unanimously rebuking the President for arrogating to himself the determination of when Congress is in session for the purpose of making recess appointments. According to reports on the opinion, the court may have taken a middle path on what a recess actually is, toning down one appellate court ruling that only allowed for recess appointments between formal sessions:

The US Supreme Court today limited a president’s power to make recess appointments when the White House and the Senate are controlled by opposite parties, scaling back a presidential authority as old as the republic.

The case arose from a political dispute between President Obama and Senate Republicans, who claimed he had no authority to put three people on the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012 when the Senate was out of town.

He used a president’s power, granted by the Constitution, to “fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate.” But the Republicans said the Senate was not in recess at the time the appointments were made, because every three days a senator went into the chamber, gaveled it to order, and then immediately called a recess.

Read more from this story HERE.